Brown, SMU prove a tough matchup again for Huskies

SMU head coach Larry Brown encourages his team during the first half of SMU’s 64-55 victory over UConn Sunday in Storrs.
Fred Beckham — The Associated Press

SMU 64, NO. 21 UCONN 55

• Tough Mustangs: SMU entered the game ranked second in the nation in field goal percentage defense and certainly lived up to that billing on Sunday, holding UConn to 29.6 percent shooting (16-for-54). Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright and DeAndre Daniels combined to shoot 10-for-38.

Kevin Ollie praised SMU’s defense but found more fault with his team’s inability to reverse the ball on the offensive end.

“They’re tough defensively, but you’ve got to move the basketball,” he said. “We made them even tougher by staying on the first side. But they are tough defensively. They’re long, they’re aggressive. Nic Moore is a tough, heady point guard. They’ve got the bigs back there, and they go 9, 10 deep. And everybody that comes off is long and athletic. They play hard and they know (Larry Brown’s) system. And they trust each other.”

• Party like its 1999: UConn’s 1998-99 national-title team and former point guard Khalid El-Amin were both honored with banners on the “Huskies of Honor” wall at halftime. The starting five for that title team (El-Amin, Richard Hamilton, Jake Voskuhl, Kevin Freeman and Ricky Moore) were all present, as well as several other players and coaches, including, of course, Jim Calhoun.

It was the first time Freeman’s been to a UConn game at Gampel since he left school, though he has been to some games in Hartford.

UConn, of course, beat No. 1 Duke to win its first of three national titles on March 29, 1999 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“The biggest thing I remember from that game is coach’s attitude at the beginning of the game,” Hamilton recalled. “Usually, he was always on pins and needles. That was the first game he came in and told us, just relax and play. I think that really, really was the big thing for us, because we really believed we could win the game. We thought we were the best team in the country. We thought Duke was getting all the praise, but we didn’t mind that. It was something exciting for us. I think when Khalid had the ball, running, and they were playing that ‘One Shining Moment’ song, and he was running with the ball, with his hands up, I think that’s the memory that sticks in my head.”

Hamilton added that when he encounters players from that Duke team now, “they can’t even look me in my face. That’s how I like it ... I’m always hard on them, like, ‘Hey, you never beat them, regardless of all the praise y’all got, whether you got the Wooden Award or not. We got the ring at the end.”

Said Calhoun: “Of all the things I’ve done in my coaching career, I’ll never forget walking into this building in 1999 — the trip over, I still describe as probably the most remarkable trip. I have no idea how many people were on (Route) 84. They stopped cars. They were on buildings. Coming up here on (Route) 195 was absolutely incredible. But still, walking into this building, after the disappointment of nine years before, and this time having the hardware in my hands, is still the highest moment of my coaching career.”

— David Borges

STORRS >> Larry Brown has stated numerous times that he doesn’t like having to coach against Kevin Ollie.

Brown, of course, coached Ollie with the Philadelphia 76ers for two seasons (1999-2001) and is at the head of a long line of admirers of the UConn coach.

“I’ve been fortunate to coach for a long time, especially at the NBA level ... but he’s as good (a teammate) as anybody that’s ever put on a uniform,” Brown said. “The respect he has from his teammates and the coaches in the game, everybody recognized that.”

Brown may not like coaching against his former pupil, but he certainly has to like the results so far this season. Guided by a choking defense that seemed to frustrate UConn at every turn and just enough of a second-half offensive spurt, Brown’s SMU team beat the Huskies for the second time this season on Sunday, 64-55 before a Gampel Pavilion sellout.

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The 21st-ranked Huskies (21-6, 9-5 AAC) had lost to SMU, 74-65, back on Jan. 4 in front of a raucous sellout crowd that was christening the newly-refurbished Moody Coliseum. This time around, it was UConn that appeared to have the home court emotional edge, what with the 1999 championship team and its point guard engineer, Khalid El-Amin, both being inducted into the “Huskies of Honor” at halftime. Richard Hamilton was even at Gampel for a game for the first time in 15 years, sitting behind the UConn bench, about midway between the two coaches for whom he won championships, Jim Calhoun and Brown (with whom he won an NBA title with Detroit in 2004).

“Isn’t that crazy?” Hamilton marveled prior to the game. “You’ve got my two favorite coaches of all time in the same building.”

Just before the opening tap, Brown took a few steps out on the floor and waved across the court to Calhoun, who was in his usual seat on the baseline. Calhoun acknowledged — sort of.

“He gave me a half-assed wave,” Brown said, with a smile. “I know how competitive he is.”

Ollie boasts the same competitive fire and takes losses just as hard as Calhoun always did.

“You’ve just got to play more solid, on the offensive and defensive end,” Ollie added. “You’ve got to be a tougher minded team, and we weren’t that today. Larry Brown and SMU have a good group of guys over there. They play hard, and they play together.”

No doubt, Ollie doesn’t like going up against Brown, either — perhaps for several reasons. Sometimes, certain teams are just difficult matchups for other teams, for whatever reasons. Perhaps SMU is that bad matchup for UConn?

The Huskies weren’t necessarily buying that notion.

“Nah, it’s not a tough matchup,” Boatright insisted. “We just missed a lot of shots. We make half of those shots that we put up, it’s a whole other game.”

Niels Giffey pondered the idea a little more.

“They are well-coached, they’ve got an NBA coach,” the senior swingman said. “It’s a tough question. I don’t think they’re a particularly bad matchup for us, I just think that it kind of shows our weaknesses in this game. The game down there was just a totally different game. We had a bad attitude down there, didn’t approach the game the right way. But I think today, everybody was in the right mindset. We just weren’t able to move the ball and attack the paint the way we wanted.”

SMU, which will likely be ranked on Monday, is now 22-6 overall, 11-4 in the AAC and 2-0 against the Huskies. But there could well be a third matchup coming: Sunday’s loss makes it increasingly likely that UConn will have to play in the 4-5 game of next month’s conference tournament. The Huskies probable opponent? Either Memphis, which will be playing on its home floor at FedExForum, or ... you guessed it ... SMU.

That would be a matchup neither head coach would like to see — for a variety of reasons.

“We won’t shoot like this ever again, hopefully,” Ollie said on Sunday. “And, hopefully, if we face them in the tournament, we’ll be better prepared.”

Contact David Borges at dborges@nhregister.com. Follow Dave on Twitter @DaveBorges.